At present users of mobile telephone or smart phone type mobile terminals are confronted with an ever richer offer of services. Over and above standard telephone services, users are offered diverse and varied services such as messaging, audio and video streaming, games, content downloading, calendar, etc. These services are accessible locally on the mobile terminal, via a mobile network (GSM, GPRS, UMTS, etc.) or via a near-field connection, for example using exchange protocols such as IrDA, Bluetooth, or RFID.
These services rely on applications that are stored either directly in the mobile terminal or in microchip cards or smart cards. A service can call on one or more applications.
For example, in the Java system, an application in the mobile terminal corresponds to a mobile information device profile applet (MIDlet), i.e. a Java application that can be executed on a Java mobile. Thus the presentation part (e.g. Java MIDlet) that manages the man-machine interface (MMI) of the application is specific to the mobile terminal on which it is executed. It is responsible for the graphical interface of the application and for managing access to certain resources of the mobile terminal or network (for example GSM call set-up, WAP server connection, SMS message sending, etc.). Note that a MIDlet is generally a specific applet, which does not require integrating a new application into the mobile terminal.
Moreover, when an application is in a smart card type microchip card, it corresponds to a Cardlet (Java Card applet). Under such circumstances, the business part, which manages the application data, e.g. the Java Cardlet, can be stored either in a SIM card of the mobile terminal or in a dedicated component, for example a Smart MX component.
It is important to note that the deployment and management of these applications, also referred to as “cards”, have not been standardized and so different card providers offer their own solutions,. in particular in terms of management. Thus from the user's point of view the multiplicity of cards or applications increases the complexity of managing the applications.